The walks have been good as usal, i suspect once it rains we will see less game but then there will be other intresting things to see. sightings: lion, White rhino, buffalo, elephant, zebra, impala, spotted eagle owl, kudu, hippo, giraffe and my others.

On the drives the usal suspects have all been around. The eland have been around the camp the last two nights. The eendrag males have been hanging around grysbok windmill. Roan have also been seen by guests on a regular occasion.

These three male lions caught 3 buffalo, 1 cow and 2 calves. the lions ate the calves and a little of the cow. in the photo you can see 1 male eating one calf. the other calf is under the apple leaf tree and the cow is lying in the back round untouched at that time. the other male in the photo was lying next to his stomach. The third male was lying some distance off to the left, i dont think he could look at food anymore.

Hows this mozambique spitting cobra eating some type of snake in my garden. He even started spitting (well he tried) at me with a full mouth. No Manners!

First Mopane moth for the season that i have seen. Now all we need is rain so the worms can grow big a fat. YUMMMMMM.

Went on a sunset drive this afternoon. I did the shongololo loop as some of you know this is a big hit or a massive miss. Well we did see a few things along the dirt road, buffalo, zebra, red-crested korhan doing its display, implala, giraffe and elephant. Just before grysbok windmill we came across one of the eendrag males walking down the road, he seemed to be on a mission. Maybe he could smell one of the ladies with that honeymoon perfume on.

What amazing rain we had last week, Mopani camp got about 103mm of soaking rain over three days. I must admit it was good to see the sun after a couple of days.If i could put sound clips on, i would let you hear the grass growing.

Animals have become a lot less visable, but they are all still here, you just have to look a whole lot harder. I did see one of the lioness that was on honeymoon with one of the eendrag males and she looked to be pregnant, so in a month or two there will be more mouths to feed. the eland were close to camp this morning.

Yesterday i came across the female leopard that moves around Mopani camp and Mooiplaas Picnic site. She was quite happily lying in the road. i sat (in a vehicle) watching her for about 10minutes until finaly some came down the road to share the sighting. The cat got up and move 2m off the road and lay down. I stopped the people and said there was a leopard lying down not few meters from them. They looked at me and said "thanks we see it" and drove down the road, stopped and started looking into the distance in the wrong direction through binos. What must i say???????? They did see it in the end when it had got up and walked off into the bush.

I have a pic of one of the Eendrag/Grysbok lions and want to know if it is a Eendrag male? By the way that lioness that gave you a hard time...have you seen how the cubs are doing...they were so sweet when we saw them at Grysbok windmill crossing the road and mom was so loving...hard to believe she was so mean on your one walk!!

We got another 7mm of rain last night. The European Rollers arrived over the weekend. Impala lambs have been seen.

Jane That is without a doubt one of the Eendrag lions, whichone i can not say, would need to see his face from the front. But it looks like the brunette. He seems to have all the luck with the ladies. the only time i have seen cubs was in my close encounter with them on the walk. Maybe some where out there their could be some little ones.

I went to Mapungubwe this weekend and it is different but amazing in its own way, oh and it is hot. The accomodation in the main camp is very good. Just a word of warning the closest shop and petrol station is 30km away. For birding the western side of the park is the place to go.

Thanks Michael...I will try and find a pic of him face on somewhere in another sighting..Here is another and could also be an Eendrag Male but he was old, very stiff legged and he was real beat up and struggled moving around when he got up as the first car approached. See the wounds on his face..shame beinga nurse I wanted to get out and dress them for him!!

Photographed pre sunrise right next to the road 100 metres past Grysbok waterhole

Greetings from a hot and humid Mopani.We have had some realy good rain so far this season, so much so that the dam is overflowing and the Tzendze river is also flowing properly for the first time since i've be at Mopani. Here is the tzendze starting to flow it took 17minutes to go from a small stream to river flowing bank to bank.

this at 17:07

this at 17:24

As you can imagine with all the water around there are lots of different frods and toads around. This is a banded rubber frog.

Sightings have been good, lots of elephant bulls around. Some of the elephant bulls have gone into musth. There are also lots of young animals wobbling around.

The last couple days have been lekka hot. The sightings for the last few days have been good with all the usual suspects sighted and then a few special ones. Eland and cheetah to name a few. Here are the four cheetah males.

The birds have been good as well, the white- backed night heron is seen on a regular basis at the shipandani bird hide on the night drives. On the morning drive this morning we saw a Melanistic Gabar Goshawk having Quelea for breakfast.

This is a young male that was with two lioness between Nshawu 4 and 5. They were lying in the sun when along came a herd of zebra and the lions took up position as the zebra straight towards them. Then the young male lifted his head up out from behind a bush and spoilt the whole thing, i almost got to see my second kill from start to finish in 8 years.

Here is a white impala, the one down stream of Shingwedzi, as you can see he has got some tawny colours on him now.

Here is a bit of history, i have been walking in there to west of the tropic of capricarn for 2 and a half years and never seen this before.

Here is the blond male of the eendrag coalition wlking away from the brunette who was on honeymoon. he was roaring and looked quite cheesed off that he did'nt get it all.

This morning we went out a morning walk from the confluence look out. On the way there we came across a small herd of buffalo and a breeding herd of elephant. After briefing the guests we went to look at the buffalo. As normal they stood there looking at us until there nerves broke and they all ran off snorting. Whilst walking along the tzendze river we desturbed 3 hyena drinking, they had been eating and there was some blood stains on the ones neck. Later on in the morning we came across the hyena chewing on a leg of a buffalo. After breakfast, back to the vehicle, it started getting hot. A good walk.

Here is a photo of a caracal we saw on walk a while back. He/she was a mear few meters from us. It took so long to realise that we were there we had the time to sit down and i even got time to take my camera out and take a few photos. Unbielivable.

Haven't seen sable in Kruger myselfe either.I just missed them by 2 minutes last year near Mantimahle dam. But indeed we spotted a Roan in 2008 at the waterhole of tropic of CapricornIt was just lying down near it., huge animal, I guess it's a male, what do you think?too bad that I couldn't get closer to it, the distance is quit far, so thepicture is not that good.

From our second encounter (may 2009) you've seen the picture on another topic right?These roan is normally a very difficult animal to photograph because they are very shy and run off most of the time they see a car. I think that is why people don't see them that often, and ofcourse there are only a few in the park.But really the tropic of capricorn is by far the best location to find Roan in the whole park!

Another morning drive. The weather was not as good as wednesday. I went down south of the camp and did the the Tzendze loop, which is a hit or a miss and today it was a miss most of the way. Just the usal suspects were to be seen. 1 Elephant, impala, zebra, and a steenbok. The tar road back provided black-backed jackal, ostrich and more zebra.

Friday Morning, drive again this time i went and drove old faithful, the tropic of capricorn loop. Whilst waiting for the guest to arrive i could here the lions roaring in the mooiplaas windmill direction, but no luck. the loops usal suspects were all present. Some tsessebe and 15 eland were at the windmill.

Gregor in winter is the best time to see the roan in our area. i have only seen them a few times this summer. I'm hoping when we start seeing them again there will be some new additions.

Here is a pic of a large leopard tom cat. This chap was walking over the letaba low water bridge between phalaborwa and mopani. I have seen him on the bridge and in the area of the bridge many times but never got a photo before.

What a weekend. Did a couple of drives with all the usal suspects to be seen.Mandhevu one of the big tuskers in this area has died near mooiplaas windmil so the is a smell of well matured steak in the air. So that means all the big tuskers that i know of in this area are gone.On one of the morning walks the black rhino was spotted again.

Well we've busy, so i'll just give some of the heigh lights.The drive's have been ok, there has been lots of rain so the sightings are not so good, but the eland have been seen on a regular basis on the tropic of capricorn. Ja and all the usual suspects are still around.

The walks have been great however, with two leopard sightings, rhino, elephant, buffalo, zebra, giraffe, impala, kudu.

Mandhevu the elephant most probably died of old age. The body was to decomposed and most of it had been eaten so one could not seen if it had died in a fight. His one long tusk was 2.62m and his short tusk i forget but it was 52cm in circumference. This is amazing as Alexander tuskes were 2.33m and 2.4m and 51cm in circumference and when he was walking around his tuskes were not far of the ground. Mandhevu was a massive bull.

The Eendrag males were all at Mooiplaas windmill. The black mane was on honeymoon for a change. All three of them serenaded us then the blond went and lay on his back. What a tough life.